The world is yours, as well as ours, but in the last analysis,
it is yours. You young people, full of vigor and vitality, are in
the bloom of life, like the sun at eight or nine in the
morning. Our hope is placed on you. The world belongs to
you. China's future belongs to you.

Talk at
a meeting with Chinese students and trainees in Moscow (November
17, 1957).

We must help all our young people to understand
that ours is still a very poor country, that we cannot change this
situation radically in a short time, and that only through the
united efforts of our younger generation and all our people,
working with their own hands, can China be made strong and
prosperous within a period of several decades. The establishment
of our socialist system has opened the road leading to the ideal
society of the future, but to translate this ideal into reality
needs hard work.

On the Correct Handling of
Contradictions Among the People (February 27, 1957), 1st pocket
ed., pp. 44-45.

Because of their lack of political and
social experience, quite a number of young people are unable to
see the contrast between the old China and the new, and it is not
easy for them thoroughly to comprehend the hardships our people
went through in the struggle to free themselves from the
oppression of the imperialists and Kuomintang reactionaries, or
the long period of arduous work needed before a happy socialist
society can be established. That is why we must constantly carry
on lively and effective political education among the masses and
should always tell them the truth about the difficulties that crop
up and discuss with them how to surmount these
difficulties.

Ibid., p. 63.

The young
people are the most active and vital force in society. They are
the most eager to learn and the least conservative in their
thinking. This is especially so in the era of socialism. We hope
that the local Party organizations in various places will help and
work with the Youth League organizations and go into the question
of bringing into full play the energy of our youth in
particular. The Party organizations should not treat them in the
same way as everybody else and ignore their special
characteristics. Of course, the young people should learn from the
old and other adults, and should strive as much as possible to
engage in all sorts of useful activities with their
agreement.

How should we judge whether a youth is a
revolutionary? How can we tell? There can only be one criterion,
namely, whether or not he is willing to integrate himself with the
broad masses of workers and peasants and does so in practice. If
he is willing to do so and actually does so, he is a
revolutionary; otherwise he is a nonrevolutionary or a
counter-revolutionary. If today he integrates himself with the
masses of workers and peasants, then today he is a revolutionary;
if tomorrow he ceases to do so or turns round to oppress the
common people, then he becomes a nonrevolutionary or a counter
revolutionary.

The intellectuals often tend to be subjective and
individualistic, impractical in their thinking and irresolute in
action until they have thrown themselves heart and soul into mass
revolutionary struggles, or made up their minds to serve the
interests of the masses and become one with them. Hence although
the mass of revolutionary intellectuals in China can play a
vanguard role or serve as a link with the masses, not all of them
will remain revolutionaries to the end. Some will drop out of the
revolutionary ranks at critical moments and become passive, while
a few may even become enemies of the revolution. The intellectuals
can overcome their shortcomings only in mass struggles over a long
period.

Apart from continuing to act in
co-ordination with the Party in its central task, the Youth League
should do its own work to suit the special characteristics of
youth. New China must care for her youth and show concern for the
growth of the younger generation. Young people have to study and
work, but they are at the age of physical growth. Therefore, full
attention must be paid both to their work and study and to their
recreation, sport and rest.

Talk at the
reception for the Presidium of the Second National Congress of the
Youth League (June 30, 1953).